Fatima Bibi lives with her six
children in a makeshift tent made
from plastic bags on the pavement
of one of Calcutta's busiest
thoroughfares, Central Avenue.
The poor Muslim family cooks,
eats, bathes and sleeps in the tiny
tent, oblivious to tens of thousands
of people who pass by their open
home.

Ms Bibi, 44, is also blissfully
unaware of the demographic
milestone crossed by India
yesterday.

Calcutta is India's most densely
populated city, with 23,733 people
per square kilometre. More than
half of the estimated population of
4.4 million live in slums or on the
streets, begging and fighting for
food and water. India's capital,
New Delhi, has only 6,300 people
per kilometre, while Bombay has
16,400 and Madras 21,800.
Calcutta bears the brunt of the
urban population explosion.

Over-population has strained and
stretched Calcutta's basic
infrastructure almost to the point
of total civic chaos. Sheer numbers
have compounded the dirt and
squalor, which has earned the city
the sobriquet of "armpit of the
world". The city's sores are only
too visible: they accost you each
time you step on to the roads full
of litter, stench and disabled
children.

There is a chronic shortage of
water, particularly in summer. The
public handpumps dotted along the
streets see long queues of
bucket-carrying women every
morning during the two hours the
water corporation supplies
unfiltered water.

The corporation is at its wit's end
to keep the streets clear of
thousands of tonnes of rubbish
generated by new slums and illegal
settlements mushrooming every
day to accommodate the
burgeoning tide of migrant labour.

Long queues are a good indicator
of Calcutta's dubious distinction as
India's most congested city. It can
take more than two hours to pay a
bill.

Government hospitals, which long
ago gave up trying to control the
city's population, can no longer
provide even a bed to seriously ill
patients. Instead, they are forced
to sleep on the corridor floors with
cats and dogs.

But the city's teeming millions
provide a huge number of votes for
the communists, who have ruled
the city since 1977.

The communists claim they have
made an honest effort to curb
population growth and extend
civic amenities to as many of the
poor and underprivileged as
possible, but the results are still far
from satisfactory.

Answers

May 12, 2000

May 12, 2000

India joins China at billion-people mark

ASSOCIATED PRESS

NEW DELHI - With the birth of a baby girl named
Astha - Faith in Hindi - India's
population officially hit one billion yesterday, an
event marked with fanfare and
concern over the nation's too-rapid growth.

Astha was born to Anjana and Ashok Arora at 5:05
a.m., making India one of only
two countries - the other is China - with a
population of one billion or more.

Just nine hours after Astha's birth, she and her
sari-clad mother were wheeled
before government ministers and a horde of
journalists at New Delhi's Safdarjang
Hospital.

She weighed 6 pounds, 13 ounces at birth, doctors
said.

"I feel fine," said Anjana Arora, weak and
overwhelmed by the chaotic reception.

"I'm happy," said her husband, who works in an
automotive spare-parts shop for a
salary of $50 per month.

The government marked the billion-population
milestone as part of a public
campaign pressing Indians to have smaller families
and rein in the country's
spiraling population growth.

Every measure of progress India has made since
independence in 1948 has been
swamped by the swelling population: Food production
has tripled, yet many people
go hungry; literacy has increased, but so has the
overall number of illiterate people.
Since an estimated 42,000 births occur in India each
day, it was impossible to
know exactly where the billionth person would be
born.

The government picked May 11 as the date - calling
it "a moment of celebration, a
moment to ponder."

How much of India is at or near sea-level? If a significant amount
is, maybe Hawk's icebergs hold the solution.

Then, of course, we have China. That problem will likely be addressed
by wars in the not-so-distant future as the ruling elite send their
young men who can't find wives off on forays of conquest to keep them
from revolting at home.

Kind of like Hideyoshi did when he sent his samurai to invade Korea,
so they wouldn't try and overthrow him!